You tube is frequently sited as both a sight full of love and hate, in Mackelmore's hit "Save Love" last year, he says "have you heard the youtube comments lately" referring to the harmful and bully-like comments which frequently adorn youtube. When I typed "Chris McCandless" into YouTube's search bar, a large variety of videos come up. The first video to catch my eye was a Tribute to 20 years of Chris McCandless' life. This included a slide show of many of the sites mentioned in Into The Wild. Another tribute to Chris' life acknowledges his second and "true" identity---Alexander Supertramp. Again, showing photos of some of the sites mentioned in Into The Wild, allowing for a more holistic sense of his travels and his life. These tributes glorify both his life and his death. They show photos of his adventures and although the average tribute does not focus on death, neither even touches upon his death, even though not only was it was so closely related to his vagabond lifestyle but actually the reason for his death. 

The third video was vastly different than the first two. Not a tribute, but an interview Ned Rozell interviewed Walt McCandless, Chris' father as he visits the bus where Chris spent his last days. As sad as this video was, it felt less like an ode to his life and more factual, even though this was the one video delivered by someone directly involved with Chris McCandless, the video felt as though it lacked empathy, something I never expected. He was just so detached from the interview. Granted, the interview was done in 2011, years after Chris' death, but his father was at the site of his death, I would have expected more emotion. This could be do to the bad relationship the two had while Chris was alive, as noted in Into The Wild, but even so, this caught me the most off guard. 

The final video I watched was the trailer to the movie into the wild. Since never seeing the movie myself, I thought this would not only be an interesting contrast to the book but a contrast to the rest of the videos I watched prior. Just by the flashes in the beginning of the trailer, it looks like some of the scenes are surprisingly accurate. However, this movie seems to romanticize (like many do) Chris McCandless' journey, as though this is something wondering and anyone can "take a journey, into the beauty, into the danger, into the wild", as the trailer so eloquently puts it. This is entirely inaccurate. Although it is a lovely idea, going into alaska, without sufficient supply in the dead of winter, is just stupid. About two years ago, my family went on the trip to Alaska and we did go to Denali. As you climb those mountains the temperate drops rapidly. I visited in the Middle of August and snow covered glacier ice was still all around me. But in the winter? There is no way the outcome would have been positive.